Sai's Camera
by LibertyRoll
Summary: Sai adventures to Sakura's birthday party, but finds, upon his leaving, that there are pictures on his camera he didn't take... Quick one-shot, AU.


**Hey guys - just a short little AU about Sai - I hope you like it. Be sure to review, okay? Let me know what you think!**

**I blame Raine Ishida for this - so it's dedicated to her. :)**

**At the promting of Daily Promt, Je vous present: Sai's Camera.**

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It had been an interesting night out, that was for sure. On Sai's part, most of the duration of the evening had been uncomfortable, though not wholly unenjoyable. Though socially awkward, his need for social interaction still was an active presence in his life, so when his good friend, Haruno Sakura, invited him to her birthday party, Sai was quite delighted. There would be a lot of different people present, which would present the tall pale boy many opportunities to learn various methods of interaction with different types of people, exactly the kind of scenario he wanted.

Except he'd been gravely disappointed. True enough; there were a lot of people there, none of whom had any interest in being his guinea pig. Consequently, he'd spent the greater part of the evening on the outskirts of large groups involved in conversations that Sai either had no knowledge of or no interest in.

So, when all was said and done, Sai had gone home alone not having made any progress. Well, to rephrase that correctly, he hadn't made significant progress. He'd learnt that Sasuke was a cat person and that Ino had a fetish for highlighters.

Nothing he didn't already know.

And so it was a shock when he turned on the camera he'd brought with him. He'd been forced to take pictures of certain people at the beginning of the night, but had lost track of the device until later on in the evening. He had no desire to keep those images of Kiba getting spilt on or Kabuto and Anzo dancing on the table, so he'd gone into the memory for one last browse before hitting the "delete all" button.

Except there were pictures there that he hadn't taken.

In fact, none of the pictures he'd taken were on there. Instead, they were replaced by... Sai couldn't even find words to describe them. He stared at the images, eyes wide with horror. He had no idea that Naruto was into that sort of thing, but there it was, open and honest, a private show just for Sai.

He'd nearly yelled when he saw them, but had barely restrained himself. The pictures of Naruto were certainly a sight, and as horrible as it was, Sai almost couldn't look away. He'd found the self-control, however, and hit the off button, ending the show.

Then the thought occurred to him: Where were the pictures _he'd_ taken? Closely examining the camera, he realized scratches and discolorations covered it. It wasn't his camera. But if it wasn't his, then whose was it? It was the exact same model, brand, colour, everything.

Well that solved that mystery.

He just hoped that whoever had his camera, they'd be more careful with his than they were with theirs.

The party had been on a Saturday, so Sai had to wait until school on Monday to begin the search. He'd decided to start by asking Sakura because she had been the one who invited her. He also wanted to avoid talking to Naruto, if possible, though if it came down to it, he'd ask the blond boy at the end of the day. However, when he approached her, her eyes seemed to drop to the ground awkwardly. This seemed odd to Sai, who'd always thought of her as a straightforward type of girl, not shy at all.

"Hey, Sakura," he greeted the girl, who was currently at her locker between classes.

"Oh, hi Sai. Did you have fun on Saturday?" She certainly did seem awkward, and Sai noticed a slight flush on her cheeks.

"Oh, yes, thank you." Sai smiled, though it was painted. He brought out the small device from his pocket. "But I was wondering; I seem to have mistaken someone else's camera for mine, and I was wondering if you know whose it is."

Sakura stared at the camera. "Oh, uh..." She hesitated and threw a hand into her own bag, pulling out an identical (though much newer looking) camera to the one in Sai's hand. "It's mine," she muttered embarrassed.

Sai blinked. He never had this good of luck to get it right on the first try; he always lost the game. "Oh, it's yours?"

She nodded, taking the camera from Sai's hands. "Yeah, did you look at the pictures?" she asked hurriedly.

Sai wanted to lie; he wanted to pretend that he hadn't. But he had, and the look on his face said so and he knew it. "I...never realized Naruto was into that."

"Oh, he isn't," Sakura replied, more quickly than she had wanted. "It's kind of a joke between us."

"Oh, I see."

Silence fell between the two of them until Sakura muttered, "I'd really appreciate it if you kept quiet about it, though."

Sai nodded. "That won't be a problem."

And then the bell rung, ending their conversation.

Sai never could quite look at either Sakura or Naruto the same way, though. After all, what eleventh grader took any pleasure in a re-enactment of Rapunzel with stuffed animals and Barbie dolls?

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